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Dancing amid the fire
By Christopher Moore / Correspondent
Friday, April 4, 2003
Local Kurdish community celebrates Newroz; hope for freedom
As legend has it, the Kurdish people were once terrorized by a bloodthirsty tyrant called Dehak, who would kill and even devour them at will. Then one day, March 21, 1613 B.C.E., to be precise, a freedom fighter named Kawa killed Dehak. He lit a fire atop the tyrant's house, signaling to the Kurdish people that Dehak was dead, and that they were finally free. The Kurds began to light fires of their own, and danced in celebration.
Last Friday night, 3,616 years and one week after their mythic liberation, roughly 250 Kurdish Americans came to Watertown from all over New England to greet one another, dance, and celebrate Newroz, the Kurdish New Year.
The celebration, held at St. James Armenian Church, is an annual event organized by Serdar Jajan, a Kurdish interpreter for Boston Medical Center. Jajan was born and raised in the Kurdish region of Syria, near the borders with Turkey and Iraq. He has been organizing the Newroz celebration "for now at least six or seven years." Usually scheduled for March 21, this year's was delayed a week due to scheduling difficulties.
"We'd been around almost 20 years, every year we are holding no celebration," Jajan said of the years prior to his involvement. "The past seven years we have had mass refugees settle here in Boston. Our numbers have increased," making a large-scale celebration more possible.
Though there has never been a set of political borders bearing its name, Kurdistan is a historic region of the Middle East. After World War I, it was divided up among Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran, forcing the Kurdish people to assimilate into new countries and cultures, often with disastrous results.
The 1988 poison gassing of Kurds living in the Iraqi city of Halabjah is a well documented event, and has been cited by both the current and former President Bush as evidence of Saddam Hussein's cruelty. Reports of abuse and even killings at the hands of the Turkish army have surfaced over the years as well. Turkey's apprehension over a Kurdish uprising against Hussein's regime in northern Iraq has been palpable in recent weeks, though last week the country did agree not to send troops in behind American forces.
Many of those in attendance at last Friday's Newroz celebration came to the United States to escape such persecution.
Krmang Falah, who works in the production department at Garelick Farms in Lynn, said he came to the United States "running from Saddam" in 1997.
"Before the Gulf War, I was put in prison," said Falah. He escaped to Iran, then to Turkey, and from there decided to go to America. "I chose America because I believe America is a free country. Turkey said 'We'll protect you,' but they don't even protect the Kurds living in their country."
Falah supports the war in Iraq, but insisted that he is not interested in seeing the establishment of a separate Kurdish state. He does believe that the unofficial Kurdish government in northern Iraq can set a democratic example for the rest of the country.
"Iraqi people need that," Falah said. "They have a dictatorial regime."
Qasham Balata, a Somerville resident originally from northern Iraq, came here through a refugee camp six years ago with 28 other members of her family. She recently stopped working as a Boston Medical Center dispatcher to care for a new baby.
"I'm very sad because there's a war in our country," said Balata. "In any war, many innocents will die, for no reason. On the other hand, I'm so happy; maybe this will be the end of Saddam Hussein."
Farshra Skban and her husband moved here in 1988 to join relatives already living in the states. Skban said her husband, originally from Turkey, was not allowed to speak his own language there or even identify himself as Kurdish.
"A woman has no freedom," said Skban of Iran, where she lived before coming to the United States. "They put you in jail for showing your hair."
Skban said she and her husband remind their daughter how fortunate she is to have been born in the United States.
"In this country, she has all of this freedom," Skban said. "She doesn't know how we grew up in our countries. She doesn't know how lucky she is."
Like most of the people in attendance, Skban said she and her husband both support the war, adding that it might be a good opportunity for the Kurdish people in Iraq to establish an independent state. She acknowledged that Turkey is resistant to such a development, for fear of arousing similar intentions among the 20 million Kurds currently living within its borders.
"They know that there's going to be trouble," Skban said.
Kani Xulam, director of the American Kurdish Information Network in Washington, DC, gave the keynote speech at last Friday's event. Congressman Edward Markey had been invited to speak as well, but was unable to attend.
"For now, and the moment may not last very long, our interests match those of the Bush administration," said Xulam. "We want Saddam Hussein to go. And we want Turkey out of Iraqi Kurdistan."
Xulam expressed distrust of long-term policy decisions made by the United States towards the Kurdish people, and warned that the current war was not designed with their specific interests in mind.
"But the Middle East will not have peace with marauding thieves running the show," Xulam said, comparing Hussein to Adolf Hitler. "The triumph of national principle gave peace, stability and security to Europe. Only the same will give the Middle East its only chance at recovery to catch up with the world."
While a U.S. victory in Iraq seems almost inevitable, the costs of the war and its ultimate effect on Iraqi Kurds will not be known for months, or perhaps longer. For the time being, many are rejoicing in the impending removal of a dictator at whose hands they have suffered greatly.
Last Friday, they danced and celebrated in anticipation of that victory, just as they did so many years ago, on the eve of their mythic liberation. |
